Classic 36 Spoiler 1: End of Ancient Age

Open Class.

My goal for this GOTM will be either space race or diplomatic. Haven't decided yet. It'll probably be diplo if I run short of time (fewer wars = easier to make gracious, fewer techs to research) and space if I don't (because all else being equal, I *am* a warmonger, and because I like the spacerace movie. )

As such, my number one priority has been, and will continue to be, a fast tech pace. In short, that means:
- pushing research myself whenever practical
- saving up money for trades and building scientific infrastructure whenever not
- building a forbidden palace as early as possible in a good location
- getting and trading contacts ASAP to drop tech prices
- keeping the AI smart and happy (donating techs and luxes outright to laggards, and avoiding selling for gpt whenever possible)
- making good use of any scientific AIs that might be in the game

All that in addition to my usual goals of territory and population building, and warmongering. Piece of cake! I've never pushed research as hard as I plan to at such a high level, so it should be wild trying to keep up!

So with that decided, it was on to the game.

During the pregame phase, I had decided to settle one tile SW by the cows unless a scout move east to the river revealed a food bonus. I wanted a settler factory up and running as soon as possible in order to colonize as much land as possible as fast as possible. Since I'd be doing a 40-turn minimum run on writing, I figured the lack of cash early on from working unimproved tiles while irrigation was brought to the cows would not be critical. If I could get to mapmaking fast enough, I guessed I'd have more than enough opportunity on an archipelago map to trade for the techs and cash I'd need to get up to speed scientifically. I didn't consider trying for the Lighthouse, gambling I'd be able to make the needed contacts without it, and preferring both to use my shields on other things, and to avoid the early golden age.

There was one consquence of a strict writing-mapmaking research path that I didn't consider until later: if I was in fact alone on an island, I wouldn't have any archers to deal with Emperor-level raging barbs. This did greatly affect my game plan later on.

But back at the start, I was still blissfully ignorant of that consequence. Since the scout found nothing of interest (except lots of bonus grasses to make me start considering that area for a nice Forbidden Palace), I settled London in 3950 BC by the cows as planned, and set research to writing while my worker set about irrigating the regular grass tiles between London and the river.

I spent about twice as long planning the initial 20-30 turns as I usually do. I finally decided to build a warrior and worker out of London before the granary, the warrior for MP and the worker to get the necessary mines built so London could start on settlers right away. If things had gone as I'd originally planned, London would have built its granary on turn 26 at size 4 with a granary exactly full, in perfect position to start building 4-turn settlers right away. Due to the inevitable mistake in my worker plans it didn't quite work out this way -- it worked out better! The granary was built on turn 25, with London still at size 3 but with 5 food above the line, and I found out I could actually run the factory from size 3.5 to 5.5 instead of the planned 4-6. Considering the high lux taxes I was running with my early lack of MPs and only one lux on the island, I was quite happy with this. So London built its granary in 2750 BC, and then built a settler every four turns until the revolt to Republic.

My scout, meanwhile, headed east initially, finding the coast in only 3800 BC, then looping south and west to explore the south coast. While the scout discovered the Chinese island off across the strait, there was no one there yet to say hello. So it was on to explore the rest of the west coast, then up to the northwest (seeing German borders, but too far away to see any units on land) and the northeast before looping back down into the far east again.

I had been considering trying to run dual settler factories from the start, and finding the third cow south of London (two 4-turn factories!) made that idea extremely tempting. But then I saw how diabolical the map-builder had been! All of the possible tiles I could have used had something wrong with them. One was a tile away from the coast. Another was a bonus grass -- settling there would've robbed me of the shields I'd've needed to make 4-turn settlers possible. Another would've required a cultural expansion or another city to reach the southern cow. I was also looking at the possible sites for my 3rd and following cities. RCP-3 turned out to be (I exaggerate only slightly) bonus grass bonus grass bonus grass mountain mountain mountain. Blech! So I gave up the dual 4-turn factory idea, putting York 3 tiles due south and rationalizing I'd need warriors for MP and barb-fighting more than I'd need extra settlers anyway.

York's settler was sent south to the city site in 2590 BC and promptly spotted my first barb camp two tiles further south. So warriors it was! On the same turn, my scout, now in the far east a few tiles NW of the furs, walked into a barb camp on its first move. I decided to keep the scout out there as long as possible, hoping to use it as a distraction to keep the barbs away from my cities. I think this may actually have worked. Very few barbs threatened my eastern cities as they were settled, many fewer than I would have expected considering the raging barbarians setting. I got to play footsie with them out there for millennia.

I was sacked only three times, in both York and Nottingham two turns after their respective foundings, for cash, and in York again in 1910 BC, for population, after I'd sent two warriors out of the city to attack a camp near there the same turn barb horsies showed up. The camp died, but so did both warriors, leaving the city open to the red-lined barb horse. That was about the end of it, though; I had the map pretty well lit up shortly thereafter, although it took a heck of a lot of resources devoted to warrior builts to accomplish it. I'd have much rather had a few archers, but it didn't work out too badly in retrospect. Total death toll on land was four or five warriors and eventually my scout, but no workers or settlers. On sea, it was a different story, but more on that later.

Writing was learned right on time in 2110 BC, and research was set to mapmaking at best speed. (Turned out to be 24 turns.) Ironically, on the very same turn I spotted my first barb galley. Eek! The AI already had maps! I persisted with my plans, though, knowing that the AI stunk at exploration and hoping I could get my galleys out fast enough to steal the contacts anyway. Within the next 10-12 turns I started on galley pre-builds in three of my newish coastal towns, intending to pop-rush: one in my farthest eastern town fairly close to the landmass there, one a couple of towns west along my south coast, and one near the German border I'd seen. York also got a galley pre-build as mapmaking got closer, to build by hand.

Mapmaking was finally learned in 1375 BC; I switched research off, anticipating trades. The three towns pop-rushed immediately, and York would build a fourth galley two turns later. I found Germany first, in 1350 BC, moderately worried to find out I was hopelessly behind in tech -- they still didn't even have alphabet! Wheee! I decided to see if I could find another civ quickly to bring down the cost of their techs, so waited another couple of turns while my eastern galley headed down the coast of the landmass there and my southern galley headed southwest along my southern coast. In 1300 BC I both met China and found the passage to France, so I waited one more turn, until 1275 BC, before trading. China didn't have alphabet either. [dance]

This was a banner year for England. The haul:

Bronze-working, The Wheel, CB, WC, Masonry, Mysticism, IW.
Contact with a 4th civ.
World maps of all four civs.
221g (in other words, everything they had).

Contacts and missing techs were gifted all around, with one exception: China and Germany did not get mapmaking until later, after my galleys had already passed by their territory. (Civ 4, like France, already had maps.) Research went back on, to CoL at max, and the galleys pressed on.

I had severe problems with barbarians on the oceans. I built or poprushed a total of five galleys in the QSC period, but at 1000 BC had only two left (all three lost to barbs, not sinking). Two of the three were lost attacking at full strength, where the odds were substantially in my favor. Despite that, though, I found a fifth civ in 1125 BC and the sixth in 950 BC. The seventh contact took a small eternity to get and cost me another galley, IIRC, but I did manage it before the end of the ancient age.

More techs: HBR in 1125 BC, from Civ 5. CoL in 1025 BC, self-researched. Math in 1025 BC, from France. Philo in 900 BC, self-researched. Lit and Poly in a 2-fer in 750 BC, aided by trading contact with Civ 6. Republic in 530 BC, self-researched. Currency, Construction and my first middle ages tech in 430 BC, aided by selling contact with Civ 7 and by the fact that both scientific civs drew the same free tech.

Up until the last ancient age trade I had generally been gifting everything to everybody immediately, or at worst, within a few turns of its discovery. This practice ended here. Germany did not get Republic. China did not get Republic, currency or construction. Why? They're the nearest two civs. One or the other of them will be attacked as soon as I have knights and the boats to transport them, and if I can manage it, the other will follow once I have cavs. So it was time to start cutting them out of the tech giveaways. (I do not plan to completely eliminate Germany, just to take most of their land and remove them as rivals.) Whether or not I can actually accomplish this is another matter; the AI tech pace is about to skyrocket compared to my ability to keep up, and I have tons of infrastructure to build or buy that may have to take priority over military. I do have a beachhead, Norwich, on the northern end of the Chinese island, which should help in any invasion. I also had a town on the German continent, but that is gone now ("now" being a few turns into the middle ages); Germany threatened and I had to abandon. I have a town planted next to some iron on an island I won't be able to trade with until Astronomy; that should be some insurance against losing the single source on the home island. I also have a boat ready to carry a settler to an attractive area not too far away that's been too barb infested for anyone to settle, but a French outpost in the same area should've absorbed most of the horses from the uprising by now.

Happiness continues to be a problem. I had my first harbor built within the QSC period, but it took until 530 BC for me to be able to purchase my first lux, and there have been no more up to now. The Lighthouse was built by a civ with a coastal connection to me already, so no help there. So growth has been slower than usual, and lux taxes higher.

Despite that, I'm very happy with the way my ancient age went. For about the first time ever, I was able to plan ahead significantly, and stick to my plan mostly successfully. I've mostly kept on top of my critical micromanagement needs.

QSC stats to the extent I remember them or wrote them down; more later when I add the pretty pictures:

Towns: 14, one more than I'd ever managed before in the same time period.
Citizens: 30-something? Most of my towns were pretty small still, and I'd recently pop-rushed in three towns.
Workers: 11. Much MUCH better than last GOTM. Go me.
Gold: Don't remember exactly; will have to look.
Territory: most of my starting island, plus Norwich on the Chinese island
Warriors: 15-20, I think, all but one regular.
Galleys: 2 for the lost ones
Luxes connected: 1, naturally
Resources connected: 0, I think.
Contacts: 5, no embassies
Techs: Most AA, but not lit, poly, philo, currency, construction or the governments. Early tech pace quite slow due to archipelago.
Improvements: just a granary and a harbor

Finally, the forbidden palace was completed in Nottingham, E E SE of London, in 710 BC, so I'll be in good shape to move the palace if a leader should arise at any point.

It's really going to be a wild ride from here on out. On to the middle ages!

Renata

Open

I researched the wheel first as I intended to go on the rampage.
By the end of the QSC I was researching MM with 12 turns to go on it.
12 cities
5 barracks
6 chariots
6 warriors
13 workers

End of ancient age -90 AD.

~40 cities
Germany eliminated
67 horsemen
3 chariots
6 warriors
23 workers and 10 slaves
16 galleys
Researching engineering

First of all I want to thank all who have made this possible and keep it alive since this is pretty the end of the line for us Mac's and Civ.
I suppose this is technically my 1st GOTM. I found GOTM too far into #34 and spent most of the remaining time getting the install correct, for one, I was almost out of AA before I realized my territory wasnt the only one that didnt have horses and other resources. I finally got it to where it would stop crashing ( about 20 crashes and 3 re-installs) a couple days before #35 came out. 35 brought its own set of problems and conflicts, eventually I started doing saves before I went to negotiate something important with any other civs, and would also do saves before I went to next turn if I had done lengthy developments (after about 12 crashes I got tired of having to do turns over again from the pre-saves because it would crash inbetween turns as well). However I was able limp it along to a finish...somewhere between 20-40 crashes in total (dunno, lost count).

*What ever problems there were with new cultures (new for me) and the directory issues (the GOTM's looking for art in the main Civ folder,rather than the Art folder) I fear the problems still exist (unless corrected for in #36 build) because I was still crashing to pretty much my last turn. So, a couple weeks later #36 comes out

Open Class

Being my first GOTM I didnt keep any records...though I had a couple saves that I went back to and collected some info. Im not certain when I left AA, but I know when I didnt, so Ill post up to that point'ish.

primary GOAL : To stay alive as long as possible.
secondary GOAL : To win any way possible.

Elizabeth had been moderately prepared and educated for the task, but those under her hadnt much of a clue and often had her distracted and/or misinformed, so many many mistakes were made. So is a wonder in itself that the English lived thru the AA at all.

3950 - London Settled on the coast. I figured I was needing boats ASAP and could always build an Aqueduct when I needed to. These were my first three mistakes I had to compensate for....seems you need to learn the associated technologies first and wasnt anyone else around, I was alone.

3000 - York Settled
2550 - Nottingham Settled

- Barbs start showing up, and they are mean.
- Barbs are everywhere, now w/ horses.
- Barbs have captured a couple works and have slowed us tremendously.
- Learned Writing, things are looking bleak, we take a gamble and head for Literature ASAP. We take another gamble and send out two warriors (our defense is already weak, but taking Barb Village$) to each of the farthest coasts and hope someone will contact us. ....and start a pre-build for the Great Library.

1870 - Hastings Settled
1625 - Canterburry Settled

- Learned Literature, cut Science/MapMaking to 0%, and pray.
- Germany finds us we trade and become friends.
- I guard Literature as it is my only hope to survive.
- build as many Temples and Libraries as defense will allow .

1450 - Colossus @ Spain

- switched from Colossus to Oracle
- need Temples to secure island from other colonists and Barbs...seeing Barbs with boats now.

1000 - Pyramids @ France

1000 - All that is know about those dark and dreadful times is (mostly guess) :
4 Towns
12 Population (if even that)
Poor
2 Temples
1 Barracks
3 Workers
2 Spearman
6 Warriors

- at some point I had traded/learned/bought MapMaking, a new priority was to squat on N. Germany's unclaimed Horse/Iron and build a temple. Lost one/only ship to Barbs after dropping off a Warrior and Spearman to delay any wandering German Settlers.

630 - Coventry Settled in Germany (need Temple and Harbor)
690 - Oracle @ Russia

- switch to Great Lighthouse

590 - Great Lighthouse @ Spain

- switch to Great Library
- English are looking in pretty bad shape, but I will have my Great Library

410 - Great Library - London


- Because of my weakened state I chose to not to seek communication with others, and I guess Germany hadnt given me away either, because after a turn or two after the Great Library, I realized I didnt know anyone else than Germany. (mistake #15 or so at this point)
- for the First time, there is HOPE and the people are happy for it.

250 - New Castle Settled
170 - Oxford Settled

150 - Liverpool Settled

- after trades, discoveries and other negotiations I immediately go into a 5 turn anarchy and change out of this archaic government.





110 - Dover Settled

50 - We are now a Republic...time to build and recover.

- I am not certain when I entered the MA, was just waiting for Technology to be passed around, I had also missed a few key opportunities for advancement by waiting too long to trade Techs the Library brought me. but other than that, things were looking up. I was still in last place, but there was HOPE.

primary GOAL : Prepare for the discovery of Education with Libraries, Courthouses, and University pre-builds (and lot of $ to spend), put what is left to minimally defend the Homeland and keep Coventry well defended so to keep Germany safely away. I also send off a couple Galleys to seek out some new lands to Settle.

- all Science stays at 0% till the day Education begins to become a reality. Brokering Science to the world pays well and gains many favors and friends...timing and opportunity are the key. ....some were missed, some werent.




* The best news of all, not one single crash. I guess I had overcompensated so much trying to get thru #35 that I had already made the file changes that crashed my roommate and a few others with the Spain issue. ( I think I had taken all my new Civs and copied them into my main Civ folder at some point. )

Did you use my Mac GOTM installers? If you did, and still had all these problems I'd like to know. The ones I can recognise are:

- Spain.flc - a known problem, but if you used the installers that should not have happened.

- resources no appearing - since GOTM30-something you have to do a resource file swap after installing. That's made clear in various placed in the forum.

- the crashes really shouldn't happen.

Rather than take up space in this thread, p'raps you'd PM me or take it to the Mac installers thread

Major Walker, the SEAL team leader, crept past the fallen guard to Theodora’s cell. He silently opened her cell door and entered the room.

“Aren't you a little short for a storm-trooper?" Theodora said to the Major.

“I'm Major Walker, I'm here to rescue you," he said as an alarm sounded in the distance.

“This is some rescue,” Theodora complained as they sprinted across the courtyard as the small arms fire landed all around them. Soon the pair tumbled into the shuttle and watched the planet shrink into the distance from the view port. Theodora curled up in her bunk and had the best sleep she’d had in months.

The next morning she read the message Mursilis prepared for her:

Theodora,

I’m hoping you are well after your long ordeal. I have arranged for you to lead a new expedition to a soon to be colonized world. This new colony has been sponsored by a local university as an experiment in the effects of culture in a new world. We’d like you settle and expand as quickly as possible in a very dense pattern. As soon as possible, we’ll need you to begin adding cultural improvements to each of your cities. We’d like you to avoid all military confrontations and maintain only a minimum defense force. Our scans indicate the likelihood of your landing spot to be a deserted island at over 75%. Please refrain from seeking out external contacts for as long as possible and try to prevent any interlopers from establishing a beachhead on your island. We’ll be monitoring the progress and once you’ve reached a suitable cultural status, we’ll contact you and arrange to extract you from the populace.

Thanks for your help,

Mursilis

Another expedition, so soon, how could she get so lucky.

After a few days, the military shuttle rendezvoused with the colony transport and she entered the colony command stasis pod and activated the controls and slept for the duration of the trip.

The jarring thud of the landing ended the long slumber. Theodora checked the monitors and opened the hatch and checked out her new world. “Plenty of local livestock and that river to the east will someday provide needed water” she thought. “We’ll set up our base camp over there to the southwest” she ordered the colonist. “Drake, why don’t you head east and checkout this piece of dirt we’ll be calling home. The rumors are that we might be alone here,” Theodora said to her scout. She ordered a single elder to begin researching a method of record keeping and had the builders start on a storage building for food.

The end of the first thousand years was marked by the first of a long line of settler teams leaving London. The improvements for the local livestock meant that London would be growing rapidly and new settlers would be ready at regular intervals.

Soon Drake returned from exploring and reported that indeed, the English, as her people liked to be called, were alone on this island. Drake mentioned another landmass to the east that he would monitor for a possible neighbor.

The second thousand years passed with little incident. The research on Writing was finally complete and couple of thinkers were now working on methods of accumulating volumes of writing into books. Here country now had six cities. Drake reported a small group of “wild men” to the north and Elizabeth (as her people called her), sent a group of fighting men to remove the threat.

At the end of three thousand years, her country had founded thirteen cities and had not only discovered literature, but also a Code of Laws to govern by. Her largest city was erecting a large building for the storage of books in hopes that she’d find some way to stay abreast of new knowledge, once the other tribes found her.

“My fellow Englishmen, I welcome you all to the opening of this Great Library. Let be a magnet for the knowledge of this world,” Elizabeth said as the mighty doors swung open for the first time. Tomorrow, she thought is the right time to announce this new method of government, my philosophers have detailed for me.

The English Republic welcomed, Ipswich, it’s twenty-fifth city in the year 210 BC and still no other tribes, save an occasional wild man, had been seen.

Drake burst into the dining room as Elizabeth was finishing her trifle shouting, “There be people to the east” and he collapsed. And so there was, it seemed that the Chinese leader Mao, had quickly sold his knowledge of the English and five new neighbors came to visit. They had many things to offer, but all wanted nothing but the knowledge of Republic. Elizabeth just played a delaying game and waited for knowledge to come to the Great Library. The next morning wagons loaded with new ideas lined as far as the eye could see. Knowledge, from The Wheel and Masonry to Construction and Currency arrived in Nottingham and was soon being cataloged away in the Great Library.

With the English scientists discovery of Polytheism in 70 BC, Elizabeth was the first to lead her people to the Middle Ages. She had yet to complete her first cultural building, but her final pair of settlers (numbers 32 & 33) were in route to the designated settlement sites and soon the entire island would have new priorities.

denyd@ - do you have all your stories captured somewhere in a single place?
I happened to join this community with COTM2 and I have a feeling that I started to read a novel somewhere at the middle. And I am too lazy to go around this forum searching for the pieces of your art

I have kept them all and could append each games set and send them to you if you'd like.

denyd said:

I have kept them all and could append each games set and send them to you if you'd like.

Click to expand...

I would appretiate it.
But also I was thinking that may be I am not alone and you could keep a separate thread with copies of your spoilers.
It is fun to read them when time allows it.

Opening Moves
I start by moving my scout to the east. Not seeing any other food resources I decide to move the worker east to start the processes of irrigating the grassland cows. I settle London in 3950BC and set research to Writing. I set my build to Granary, to take advantage of the 4-turn settler factory, which will use a size 4 to 6 cycle. I controlled London’s growth so that my granary would complete (in 3050BC) one turn before growth. Initial build order was granary, warrior, then settlers (factory was up and running at this point.

Scouting & the hunt for Goody Huts
My scout continued to move east until he hit the coast and saw more land across the narrow strait. He then proceeded to move counterclockwise and uncover the entire northern area. Later he completes the arc and spies the land and a blue border to the west. He finishes up by mapping out the southern area. I would love to say that I got 3 techs and a few maps from GHs, but that would be a lie. There were none on my starting island.

Expansion
While completing the exploration of my island I determine that I can get two well populated RCP rings and part of a third if I use a RCP3/6/9 pattern not centered on my capital. So I found York two tiles east of London and use it as my RCP center. After building a warrior and a worker from York I eventually switch it’s granary build to the Forbidden Palace, instead of trying to use it as a second factory. London was kicking out a settler every 4-turns so I quickly was expanding my empire. However because I was not sending out escorts with my settlers I was building cities that were undefended and the barbs were relentless. Somehow I managed to not lose any settlers but barbs repeatedly pillaged some of my cities.

Techs
I discovered Writing in 2110BC and set to Philosophy. I decide to run my science at a max rate in an attempt to get to Republic quickly. I researched Philosophy in 1600BC, Code of Law in 1325BC, Republic in 725BC and finally Map Making in 510BC This may have turned out to be a mistake; by passing up on Map Making earlier it took me a long time to establish contacts.

Contacts before end of QSC period
None, zero, zilch, notta, nill, infinity times zero – doesn’t matter how you say it the results were the same – nothing.

QSC Summary

15 cities
Pop 28
Tiles 133

City Improvements
1 barracks
2 granaries
Forbidden Palace due in 7 turns

Military Units
3 settlers
8 workers
1 scout
11 warriors
lost 3 or 4 warriors

Techs
ALPHA - 4000BC started
POT - 4000BC started
WRIT - 2110BC researched
PHIL - 1600BC researched
COL - 1325BC researched
REP due in 13



More of the AA
The period from 1000BC to 825BC saw the founding of 4 more cities. I learn Republic in 725BC and draw a 6 turn anarchy period. I become Republic in 610BC and finally learn Map Making in 510BC. I switch some builds to galleys and launch 3 of them in 470BC.

450BC a very good year
A quick reminder that entering this turn I had no contacts and only knew 7 techs, all self researched. At the end of the prior turn I had spotted a pink border to the east, but had no contact. It turns out China made a bunch of money by putting my name on a mailing list and selling it to 3 other civs, none of which was Germany (the western blue border). After making contact with the civs I start into some heavy trading sessions. I end this turn with full world contacts and a complete world map. I have also acquired CB, BW, MAS, Wheel, WC, MYST, IW, HBR, POLY and all the worlds gold.

End of the AA
I found 2 cities on the western end of China territory, before barbs attack my settlers. The barbs pillage me for about 100 gold the next turn but it was better than losing 2 settlers. I learn LIT in 350BC on the same turn that 3 other civs get it. I trade for MATH in 330BC and found another city in 290BC. I hook up my iron in 210BC and upgrade 7 veteran warrior to swords. In 170BC another civ learns CONST, which makes me happy because I picked CURR to research figuring someone else would get CONST. This same turn saw me pop the one and only GH I have seen in the entire game and it yields me Monarchy, which everyone else already had. In 130BC I learned CURR, trade for CONST and enter the Middle Ages. I round out this turn by trading/gifting the 2 other scientific civs into the MA and acquiring Monotheism from them.

End of AA Stats
23 Cities, my FP already built
84 Pop
203 Tiles

Military Units
1 settler
16 workers
16 warriors
11 swords
1 cat
4 galleys

Originally posted by Renata: (all three lost to barbs, not sinking). Two of the three were lost attacking at full strength, where the odds were substantially in my favor.

Arrrr, IMHO the odds are in your favor when you can fortify your vessel in sight of a barb vessel. They seem to always attack, so you can recieve the defender bonus And the fortification bonus. When you're attacking, you have no bonus, and they have the defender bonus.
The rub: if you forget that you fortified your boat and don't make the effort to wake it up, it might sit there for a long time...

@ Jove -- I thought that neither of those bonuses applied on water. Am I wrong?

(I was referring to the +25% attack bonus vs barbs on Emperor.)

Renata

PTW Open

QSC
18 cities
1 settler
31 citizen
9 worker
6 barracks
1 granary
7 warriors

End of ancient age 90 AD.
36 cities
27 horsemen
16 swordsmen
6 warriors
19 workers and 8 slaves
5 galleys
832 CM (best)
wonders GL, GB
FB in Paris

Wars from 350BC and 4 (!!!) leaders - 2 wonders, 1 Army, 1 free (nonused )
- next turn GW in Paris
________________________________________
(3 reloads for this analisis )

@Renata: Well, assuming that the terrain bonus for coast counts(10%), and that the fortified unit bonus applies(25%), then defending you get a 35% bonus, in addition to not having to overcome the barb's defense bonus. Why wouldn't those count on water? There's stats for them listed, so I think they do. And does the bonus vs. barbs apply on defense as well/on water? I never thought of that, I guess I don't know. If it does, the benefit for defending against barbs at sea is even greater.
From my experience, it seems I've had more success defending against barb galleys vs. attacking them.

Opening
I moved my settler SW towards the cows and coast and started irrigating towards the cows. After 1 turn when my scout discovered a third cow, i decided to go for 2 factories alternating the middle cow between the 2 cities.
I started with a granary, followed by settlers. First settler in 2800BC, every 4 turns from there on. The first city made only settlers, the second made workers.

Barbarians were quite a pain this game. I have lost one citizen and some gold to city attacks and 1 warrior in combat.

I built a ring of cities at rcp distance 4 around 1 central city.
In 1050BC, i had settled enough on my island (only some tundra unused) and after a last settler to replace itself, i abandoned the capital.
Before doing so however, i joined 2 workers to my target new capital, Hastings. This way i had 7 cities in a ring with very low corruption.

Research
I started on Writing and Map making for i needed to get some contacts. I did both on min. At the end of getting map making at min however, i figured i could have saved at least 10, probably 15 turns by doing it max. However, i have been able to put the gold to good use by upgrading 14 warriors to swordsmen, so i am still not sure if i did wrong.

After this i did Philosophy in 5 turns. In 925BC, 3 turns after map making, i made contacts with all but 2 civ's and did some intensive trading. I ended up with the maps of all known civ's, all available tech including Code of laws and the worlds gold except for 27. I then did republic at max for 17 turns. I revolted in 3 turns, starting in 550BC.

After Republic, i researched Currency and Construction in 6 and 4 turns.
Polytheism brought me into MA in 210BC.

Golden Age and Lighthouse.
I am planning to win by knights, so Manowar ain't gonna get me a golden age.
The Lighthouse triggers it for england, and is also the best wonder to build on archipel maps. So TGL it must be.
It was of course important to get it after becoming a republic. I have investigated other cities who were building it. It turned out easier than i expected. All worked out pretty well and i had both TGL and Golden age 4 turns after becomming a republic.

When i became republic in 490 BC , i could not support it actually. I disbanded about 10 remaining warriors/spears and joined part of my *33* workers to cities in order to reduce unit upkeep. Most of my land was fully worked by now anyway. The golden age of course solved the difficulties.
Normally it would have been better to swich to republic later, but i think it was well worth it to get the golden age out of despotism.

I constructed markets in all core cities during my golden age.

Forbidden Palace
I hoped to create a second core with the FP rushed by a leader. However, even though i fought fiercly, i did not recieve a leader during ancient age. Also did my conquest start out pretty messy, not enabling my to build a neat circly of cities somewhere. So i do not yet have an FP at all.

Wars
After upgrading 14 warriors to swords in 750 BC, i invaded Germany with 12 of them. Germany was my first chosen target because their ground looked best for a second core. I captured 3 of their city and auto razed 2. This was all going well, and it looked like i could take out germany with 12 swords, but than the RNG turned against me, killing 7 swordsmen. So i made peace leaving Germany 5 cities.

I did not attack China during ancient age because up to the end of the ancient age, China managed to keep almost all of its cities size 1.
China will be attacked when its cities have grown a bit. Germany is weak enough now, and i will attack them when i see fit. I will then also extract their scientific free tech one way or another.

France was my second chosen target because they had the most developed cities. I attack France 530 BC after gifting them republic so they won't pop rush anymore. I invaded them with a combination of horses and swords. I made peace again 290BC. They have 4 cities left 2 of wich are on other islands.

1000BC
1000BC:
14 towns (38 pop)
18 native worker
10 warrior
2 spearmen
4 granaryz
2 barracks
762 gold
Map making in 1 turn

PTW, PREDATOR


In this month I discover PTW for me.

In 4000BC I moved my scout E and after that decided to settle on SE, SE from the start place. It gives me more space for ring placement. I miss second cow because I think on archipelago’s map I haven’t enough space for many cities but I want to have the strong ones. Worker moves S and irrigates the grassland and then both cattle. Scout moved E, then N, W, S by ring. I not met everybody and decided go to Map Making first.

At start I researched Writing in 40 turn (minimum rate) then Map Making at max (discovered in 1425BC). Then I started researching of Literature for trading.

Initially I built Warrior, Warrior, Settler, and Granary in London. York founded in 2950BC W from London near second cattle. I decided to build rings 4 and 7. High barbs activity force me to build many warriors and me expansion stay more slow. Since I have only 6-turn warrior + settler factory I have a little city. Because my territory isn’t big I decided going on the early wars and built early barracks.

I met Germany in 1350BC, France in 1325BC and China some turns later. In 1175BC I had all contacts and saw all discovered by other world map. After discovering Literature in 1175BC I began Polytheism but the Spain got it before me and I buy it. Next target was Monarchy. I didn’t build any Wonders. I didn’t build any temples and libraries and further paid for it.

In 1000BC I have:
13 cities,
32 pops,
2 granaries,
5 barracks,
8 workers, 20 warriors, 2 galleys (+1 killed),
Mathematics, Construction, Currency, Code of Low, Republic, Polytheism, and Monarchy left.
All contacts, maps, 3 embassies + ROP.

After that I founded only 1 city on home land and prepared to the wars.
In 610BC I discovered Monarchy and switch to it with 4 turns of anarchy. At the same time I started war with Germany by taking 3 biggest cities using ROP abuse.
While I fight with Germany I sent some force to the France because they have Great Library and in 490 captured 3 cities using the same tactic.
In 350BC Germany was gone and in 270BC France went the same way.

I had one culture flip with French city, none with Germans. From France war I got one GL and rushed FP in Paris.

In 170BC The Great Library gave me Currency and MA with it (Construction traded before it).

In 170BC I have:
35 cities,
5 swordsmen, 36 horseman, 13 galleys.

Open PTW

The opening moves were to send the settler to the forest SE, S, and to get the worker irrigating through to the cows. I decided to send the scout in that direction also to see what was around. From the hill to the south it became very obvious that our start position was bountiful, so I set up a 4-turn warrior/settler pump.

Opening builds were warrior, worker, granary. Then I think I was able to start producing a warrior and a settler every four turns. Fairly early I built a barracks in the capital so that the warriors would be veterans.

Science was min on writing, then maximum we could afford on map making so as to try and contact the other civs as early as possible. It wasn't until 1400BC that we finally researched map making and could send out our galleys. The first made contact with Germany, before being sunk by barbs.

Fortunately just prior to the QSC we met France, and traded for contact with another civ, otherwise our tech position would have looked pretty shabby!

QSC -
12 cities
29 pop
3 settlers
7 workers
20 warriors
1 galley

4 barracks
3 granaries

3 contacts
Techs - whole AA first tier plus iron working, writing, literature, map making, horseback riding

410BC we finished research on republic and revolted drawing 5 turns.

210BC we declared on the Chinese using swords upgraded from all our warriors and about 10 horses.

50BC - We traded into the MA, well in control of the tech pace, and we picked up monotheism and engineering from gifting Germany and another civ into the MA (neither of them had the optional government techs). We have contacts with everybody!

I could have done better, as I largely wasted the third cow, and probably should have waited to build up a more overwhelming force before taking on China. However, China will be history soon anyway....

1.27

Initial Thoughts
I was hoping to go for a histographic or 100k victory in this game, but I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea due to a terrible shortage of gaming time right now. I may not be able to go for these two victory types until after Christmas with the way work has been lately. So, I decided it would most likely be conquest or domination for this game.

I planned to found my capitol SW of the start, but my scout moved S, S and my worker moved W before the settler moved (just in case, but it didn’t reveal anything). I decided to mine one cow to enable a 4-turn worker/settler factory in the capitol. My initial research would be writing at minimum. Since this was an archipelago map, my research plans after that would hinge on meeting someone early. If I did make contact, then I planned to go straight for Republic, hopefully trading CoL or Phil for MM along the way. If I met no one, then I planned to research MM myself in order to get off the island.

Expansion
Initial build sequence in the capitol was warrior x 2, worker, granary (turn before growth to size 4), barracks, settler (built 2470bc), settler, archer. After that, the warrior/settler factory was online, although it also spent many turns as a 2 turn warrior/worker factory.

At the time my first settler was built in 2470bc, I had revealed the entire island with my scout and a roving warrior. I found coming up with a plan for RCP to be more difficult on this map than on any other I have ever played. Was this by design, Ainwood? If so: I really struggled with RCP: no matter what layout I chose, I seemed to end up with suboptimal placement. Either I couldn’t use the third cow without a temple, or my cities would destroy too many BGs, or I didn’t have enough coastal cities, etc. I finally decided to make a formal dotmap:


The black circles were the first cities I planned to establish (the “FP” would be #2). The question marks were cities I wasn’t sure I would want (too crowded) or get (AI), and the “X” circles were cities that I did not intend to establish until my palace jumped to another continent. My plan was to not really worry about RCP around the capitol, and to place cities at RCP 3, 6 and 9 around the chosen forbidden palace site. It made for a less than optimal QSC period, but I felt it would pay off in the end. This pattern also allowed for plenty of harbor cities, river cities, and did not destroy too many BGs. In the end, I decided not to found the 1st-ring city East of the FP, because things were getting a bit crowded. I also forgot about founding my city SW of the FP for a very long time. Ooops.

My second city was founded next to the third cow, so it built a granary after a warrior. The third city began the FP after a warrior, and the fourth city—next to the game—also built a granary. I did a tremendous amout of micromanagement/tile sharing in this game. I don't know how long it took me to play the first 80 turns, and I'm not sure I want to know!

I was very fortunate to meet China in my game. That allowed me to pursue Republic while China went for MM. Mao didn’t get it quite as early as I hoped though, not until 1150bc. I immediately traded for it and pop-rushed a galley, which yielded a few more contacts before 1000bc.

End of QSC Stats
12 cities
29 pop (Pop rushed two galleys on last two turns)
1 settler
12 workers
14 warriors
1 archer
1 chariot
1 galley
3 barracks
3 granaries
Forbidden Palace (Nottingham in 1050bc)
Embassies with China and 1 other civ
Horses, Furs hooked up
All first tier, plus IW, Writing, Myst, Phil, CoL, MM
Firaxis 285, 3rd place (Another civ is first with 346)
Republic is due in 33 at minimum.



Unfortunately, I have to end my ancient age post here, because all the rest involves a civ I’m forbidden to speak about under the rules of the thread. I hate that, because right here is where the game got interesting. I embarked on a bold (or perhaps stupid!) strategy that I had not tried before. It was quite fun, although I can’t exactly say it was effective. I guess I’ll have to save the details for the next thread.

Contacts
China 3300bc
France 1075bc
Another civ 1075bc

Research
WC 3200bc (china)
BW 3200bc (china)
Writing 2110bc
Wheel 2110bc
Masonry 2100bc
Philosophy 1525bc
IW 1175 (china)
CoL 1175bc
MM 1150bc (china)
CB 1050bc (france)
Myst 1050bc (another civ)

bradleyfeanor said:

My plan was to not really worry about RCP around the capitol, and to place cities at RCP 3, 6 and 9 around the chosen forbidden palace site.

Click to expand...

Interesting .... As I read the RCP concept you don't need rings around the FP. A city near the FP gets a corruption rank equal to the number of cities closer to the palace than it is to the FP. So if the nearet city to the Palace after you've moved it is at radius 5 all cities at or nearer than 5 from the FP get rank 1. They aren't affected by other cities nearer to the FP than they are, so you are dealing with 'Disk city placement' rather than 'Ring city placement'.

Of course I could be wrong .. it has been known

Also, either you will have an empire around your capital after moving it to another continent, causing lag in all your cities around the FP that are further away then the cities around your capital, or you will not have cities around your capital after moving it. But that would make it "moving your capital to a place remote of your empire so that you wont experience corruption" Which is illegal.

The point I was making was that it's not necessry to worry about precise distances from the FP - close is all you need to know. Typically you might rebuild your palace in a foreign capital and develop the core that's already in place. The AI often uses radius 5 for its first ring, hence my sggestion that all cities at or closer than 5 from the FP will get rank 1. A dense build is all you really want around the FP, not rings. RCP is useful round the first Palace site for early development and in case you don't get the opportunity to jump very soon, with clustering around the future FP site to get as many cities as possible within that radius 5 disk.

Cities beyond 5 from the FP will get a rank equal to the number of cities in the Palace's first ring. If the Palace has a second ring then that defines the radius of this second FP disk. And so on.